13 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Is there any ranking which considers only undergraduate engineering education? I am sure IITs will be top ranked in that. It is a well known fact that IITs are primarily an undergraduate institution, and only lately they are trying to do some research as well.I am surprised that IISc, even after focusing mainly on research, is lagging far behind.

The senior students and professors here are so proud of IISc and most of them discourage juniors going abroad telling that IISc is equally good in research. But when comes ranking, it under performs. why is it still not able to make a mark even if it has India's best brains and good amount of funding ??

India's best brains in academia in India? In which world are you living? The best brains in India leave the shores and do research abroad. In India, the best brains are in industries. Few exceptions are there.

In academia in India, only connections matter. An engineering scientist with 250 papers and 3000 citations is not elected to any academy. Good scientists and engineers are not encouraged.

I am in a second grade univ in USA. All my professors have more than 50 publications. How many professors in IISc in engineering have more than 50 papers in their lifetime or more than 1000 citations.

Thanks for these links. A ranking based on these criteria misses people like Profs Raghavendra Gadagkar and Madhav Gadgil, both at CES, IISc, who have done great work and are among the very few Indians elected to Nat Acad Sci of USA. But as far as I know neither had much (or any?) papers in science or nature. Possibly even CNR Rao on that count but he will make up through citations.

Having said that, many of these rankings show that much improvement is needed in research in India.

I do not know why we are concerned about world rankings because we set our own standards and deny to follow what is unanimously accepted as world standards. Publication, for example, is considered to be a scale to evaluate once research productivity and it is accepted all over the world. But we very proudly say that we do not believe in it. Rather, for us, high publication is an indication of poor research and non-publication is the greatest achievement and the most noble gesture to be learnt during research (or Ph.D. to be more precise). We also do not believe in the system of impact factor. As long as we do not publish in Science or Nature, which of course we do not, these journals also are commented to have bad papers. So I think we should not be bothered by our position in the world because anyway we can find some "if and but" to challenge them rather than understanding and accepting the system.

I did not mean you. I did not know that you have more than 250 papers and 3000 citations. That you are not even nominated is even more surprising. It is a shame how science runs in India. The other scientist who had similar record (though he is much more older than you) was also denied.

I have witnessed such a dirty selection procedure by one of the academies in india. I have run poster to pillar to get my papers nominated. Got shortlisted for interview. I was shocked to see the attitute of panels during interview and most of them were sleeping (as if the list was already made) and awards were given to near and dear ones of selection committee members. I wish really good luck to all these processes which are supposed to brings gems out of rest.

During my IIT Bombay days some 10-12 years back, there were many 'top scholars' who had under 15 journal papers in life, published 1-2 papers in a decade and used to openly pour scorn on junior colleagues trying to publish - saying anyone can do that. And of course, they continue to be the 'top experts in India'.

In IISc people don't know marketing, if you will go to many part of India and ask about IISc you will be surprised that most of the people don't know that IISc but every body know IITs. For that excuse in IISc is IIT is known for their undergrad.When i was in my undergraduate, i didn't know that IISc is that good. frankly speaking after doing undergrad in INDIA every body loss his faith in teaching and education, but i have to say one more thing IISc is exceptional. but people need to know that and for that we need branding and we need to put effort in that direction.

Dear sir, what Raj told is true,Last year when I was a sixth semester student,I came to know of an institute named IISc for the first time,when a senior got admission here,when I mentioned about that to my friends in other engineering colleges,about IISc,being more rated than IITs they thought I ws bluffing,I had to show them google results to show them what exactly is IISc,and where it stood in the world rankings.Yet people are not convinced,Sir I believe IIScians need to market themselves.

About Me

I am a professor in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
I work in the chemical engineering department and I am an associate faculty in Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit (SSCU),
My interest is primarily research, which I try to perform without any diversions.
I believe in working with passion in whatever we do, however "small" the work may seem to others.
I named this blog "Life in IISc" because I spend all my time in IISc. If I am in Bangalore, I am in IISc, nowhere else!

The views expressed here are my personal opinions and certainly not that of IISc.